Application. March-31, 1937,. Serial No. 133,991 1 Claim. (Cl. 51-164) Our invention relates to the cleaning of elongated metal objects, such as steel billets, slabs, bars, rods and other shapes from scale, rust, pitting and the like, and also the coating of the same with a rust-proof substance.

Billets, slabs and other forms of semi-finished steel are characterized by rolled-in scale which must be removed before the material is further fabricated or brought into finished form.

The usual method employed for this purpose is pickling the steel in acid baths. This is an expensive process and the length of the steel articles which may be pickled is of course limited by' the capacity of the pickling vat. Again the acid in the pickling vat is likely to pit the steel and .in the case of special steels there is a consequent loss that may be material.

, The average cost of the pickling treatment is from five to fifteen dollars per ton of metal treated, while actual tests show that by means of our invention this cost may be reduced to from twenty-five cents to fifty cents per ton.

In the practice now in general use, rusted and pitted metal and steel bars,.rods, tubes and other shapes are usually cleaned by hand or machine brushing, one article at a time being subjected to the cleaning operation.

Steel mill records show that it has taken forty minutes to clean, by brushing, a sixteen foot length of No. 12 gauge band steel, 2% inches wide. By the use of our invention three tons of-like material have been effectually cleaned in twenty minutes. I

Again, after the articles or shapes have been cleaned of rust, scale and other surface defects, the metal surfaces are more susceptible to rust than before cleaning, and it is necessary to coat the surfaces with some rust-proof compound. Such coating is expensive if done by brushing or dipping, as is the present practice. By means of our invention this coating may be applied much more cheaply and also much more uniformly, a large number of articles being coated simultaneously. w

-In the case of our invention we accomplish the removal of scale, rust and other surface impurities and defects by impact and attrition.

Thus we employ a longitudinally extended cylindraceous container of sufficient length to permit the billets, slabs, bars, rods and other shapes contained therein to have both lateral rotary movement and longitudinal movement, the container being simultaneously revolved on its longitudinal axis and also longitudinally tilted in alternate directions so that the contents are both drawn up along the interior wall of the container and caused to drop and are also shifted longitudinally alternately in opposite directions. Thusthe articles are raised and dropped on each other and shifted longitudinally in contact with each other.

' The result is that the scale and rust are jarred loose fromthe metal surfaces by the rapidly repeated impacts and are removed by thesliding surface contact caused by the relative longitudinal movements of the articles.

We have found by actual practice that not only are scale and-rust quickly removed but also that the pits are removed from the surfaces.-

In coating the cleaned material we use thesame container introducing in the latter a mixture such as of tallow, graphite and sawdust or some other suitable carrier. The container is then given rotary and longitudinally tilting motions, and as a result the exposed surfaces of the metal bars or other articles are quickly coated with a layer of the rust-proofing material uniformly distributed over all their exposed surfaces.

In the accompanying drawing, wherein We have illustrated the working of our improved method in connection with the preferredembodiment of the principles of our apparatus, Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the apparatus.

Fig, 2 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 22 in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a like view taken along the line 3--3 in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is alike view taken along the line 4-4 in Fig. 1.

, Fig. 5 is a broken elevation of one of the removable end closures.

Referring to the drawing, I, represents a longitudinally -extended. 'cylindraceous container... of sufiicient length to receive metal shapes of the proper lengths. In'practice we find that in many instances the container should be long enough to receive bars, rods and other shapes of at least seventy-five feet in length. As will later appear, the interior. length of the container should be greater than that ofjthe material whichis to be cleaned or coated.

Thevcross sectional shape of the container I is preferably polygonal, such as octagonal, instead of annular, since where the container is a true cylinder, the bars, rods or other shapes when the container is rotated, tend to slide down and remain .more or less quiescent in the bottom of the container, while where the container is of polygonal cross section the rotation of the container tends to carry the articles up along the side of the container whence they fall down and thus the articles are continuously impacting against each other.

Thus any portion ofthe bar or othershape moves in an orbital path transverse to the axis of the container.

Adjacent either end of the container the latter is supported in a suitable manner.

Thus we provide a pair of stands 2 mounted on either end of a base 3.

'I'he stands each may be-formed of a pair of parallel plates 4 which are in spaced relation to each other and preferably have arcuate upper perimetral edges as shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

The plates 4 are providedwith registering circular openings 5.

Between the plates 4 of each stand 2 is mounted a circular head 6, concentric with. the opening, which is rotatably supported in place by a plurality of grooved rollers I mounted between the plates 4 as on axles supported at their ends by said plates. p

Each of the heads 6 is provided with an opening 8 of the proper size and contour to snugly receive the container I and the heads are fixed to the container in any suitable manner, as, by welding.

The openings 8 are not concentric with the heads 6 but eccentric thereto, as illustrated in the drawing, the head adjacent one end of the container having an angularity of 180 degrees relative to the head adjacent the other end of the container, so that as the container is revolved it is continuously tilting longitudinally. Thus as the container is rotated the bars, rods or other shapes contained therein, are continuously shifted longitudinally in opposite directions, and therefore their surfaces rub against each other,

resulting in attrition.

Intermediate of the ends of the containerthe perimetral surface of the same is provided with one or more radially extending annular flanges 9 to the side surface of which is bolted or otherwise secured a ring sprocket l0 connectedby a drive chain H with a power-driven sprocket l2- The ends of the container are provided with removable closures to permit the loading and unloading of the container.

Thus we show the extremities of the container the openings 15 registering with the heads of the bolts when the lid may be placed in position with bolts protruding through the openings. The lid is then rotated sufficiently to move the bolts into the slotted portions of the openings and the nuts are then tightened on the bolts and the lids clamped in place. To remove a lid the nuts are loosened and the lid rotated to bring the bolts into registration with the larger portions of the openings.

To assist and expedite the cleaning action we may and usually do place some suitable cleaning material in the container, such as sand, coke dust or hard metal scale.

When bars, rods or other shapes are to be coated with material having rust-resisting or corrosion resisting properties, such material is placed with the metal objects in the container, the end-closures are put in place, and the container is rotated. As the result of the rotary and tilting movements of the container a uniformly distributed coating of even thickness is quickly applied to the objects.

We have found that a suitable compound for this purpose may be produced by mixing tallow, kerosene, graphite and sawdust or some other. suitable carrier. Thus we have successfully employed the proportions of ten pounds of tallow, one gallon of kerosene and two and on-half pounds of graphite.

We claim:

In apparatus for cleaning elongated metal objects the combination of a base, vertically distriangular relation inthe same vertical plane,

an annular disk disposed between said rollers in each stand and having peripheral contact with the surface of each of said rollers of the set car-' ried by the stand, means defining an opening in each of said disks eccentrically thereof,.the opening of one of said disks being disposed diametrically opposite to the opening of the other of said same.